New Features in Solaris Express Developer Edition 2/07

IPsec Tunnel Reform

This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Solaris now implements IPsec Tunnel Mode per RFC 2401. Inner-packet selectors can be specified on a per-tunnel-interface basis using the new “ tunnel” keyword of ipsecconf(1M). IKE and PF_KEY handle Tunnel Mode identities for Phase 2/Quick Mode. Interoperability with other IPsec implementations is greatly increased.

For more information, see Transport and Tunnel Modes in IPsec in System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Large Send Offload

This networking enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Large Send Offload (LSO) is a hardware off-loading technology. LSO off-loads TCP Segmentation to NIC hardware to improve the network performance by reducing the workload on the CPUs. LSO is helpful for 10Gb network adoption on systems with slow CPU threads or lack of CPU resource. This feature integrates basic LSO framework in Solaris TCP/IP stack, so that any LSO-capable NIC might be enabled with LSO capability.

GNOME System Tools

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release, the Java DS includes the GNOME System Tools. This feature provides several system administration tools that enable the desktop users to perform basic administration of the following system's features:

• Date & Time

• Users & Groups

• Services

• Network

• Shared Folders

The GNOME System Tools can be accessed under Launch->Administration menu.

GNOME 2.16

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this, the Java DS includes the new Gnome 2.16 desktop. The GNOME 2.16 desktop introduces new features and enhances the usability and performance of many commonly used applications. The desktop includes these new features:

• The GTK+ 2.10 version provides several new widgets, improved themes, an enhanced file chooser, and a new printing API.

• The user's experience of Plug and Play portable media and devices is greatly improved with the introduction of Freedesktop.org's HAL and related elements in the GNOME desktop environment. You can now simply insert a blank CD/DVD, or plug in a USB mass storage device, and configure the desktop interactively.

• Orca, a new screen reader and magnifier is integrated to provide enhanced accessibility support.

• Alacarte, a menu editor enables users to edit the layout of the Launch menu.

• GTK+ Authorization (Gksu) enables the running of applications as another user, or using RBAC profiles, prompting for authorization as needed.

• GNOME System Monitor panel applet and application enables the user to monitor the state of the system.

• GNOME System Log Viewer enables the viewing and monitoring of log files.

• Vino enables the remote administration of a user's desktop, allowing the administrators to see exactly what is on the user's display.

• The Java-Gnome bindings for the GNOME Platform are added in this release, enabling GNOME and GTK+ applications to be written in Java. The Java and GNOME bindings also include support for the GNOME WYSIWYG UI designer, Glade.

Orca

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Orca is a free, open-source, flexible, and extensible screen reader that provides access to the graphical desktop. Access is through user-customizable combinations of speech, braille, or magnification.

Orca works with applications and toolkits that support the Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI), which is the primary assistive technology infrastructure for Solaris and Linux operating systems. Applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI include the GNOME GTK+ toolkit, the Java platform's Swing toolkit, OpenOffice, and Mozilla.

StarOffice 8

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

StarOffice 8 includes the following new features and enhancements:

• Microsoft Office compatibility

• OpenDocument as the new default file format

• Support for XForms

• Digital signatures for documents

• Resident database wizard

• Enhanced mail merge wizard

• Applications are easier to use

• Native desktop theme

• Migration tools

• Export of documents to Adobe PDF

For more information, see http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/whats_new.jsp.

Ekiga

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Ekiga is a videoconferencing and VOIP/IP-Telephony application that enables you to make audio and video calls to remote users with H.323 or SIP hardware or software (such as Microsoft Netmeeting). It supports PC-to-PC and PC-to-Phone calls.

Ekiga also supports the following features:

• Call Forwarding on busy, no answer, or always (SIP and H.323)

• Call Transfer (SIP and H.323)

• Call Hold (SIP and H.323)

• DTMFs support (SIP and H.323)

• Basic Instant Messaging (SIP)

• Text Chat (SIP and H.323)

• Possibility to register to several registrars (SIP) and gatekeepers (H.323)

• Possibility to use an outbound proxy (SIP) or a gateway (H.323)

• Message Waiting Indications (SIP)

• Audio and Video (SIP and H.323)

• STUN support (SIP and H.323)

• DTMF support

• LDAP support (Addressbook)

Vino

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Remote Desktop (vino) provides a VNC server that integrates with GNOME, supporting multiple clients to access a GNOME desktop session remotely. It enables you to export your running desktop to another computer for remote use or diagnosis.

For more information, see the vino-preferences and vino-server man pages.

Solaris Live Upgrade

This installation enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release, Solaris Live Upgrade has been changed with the following enhancements:

• You can upgrade the Solaris OS when non-global zones are installed on a system by using Solaris Live Upgrade.

• A new package, SUNWlucfg, must be installed with the other Solaris Live Upgrade packages SUNWlur and SUNWluu.

  These three packages comprise the software needed to upgrade by using Solaris Live Upgrade. These packages include existing software, new features, and bug fixes. If you do not install these packages on your system before using Solaris Live Upgrade, upgrading to the target release fails.

For more information about upgrading when non-global zones are installed on a system, see Solaris Express Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.

x86: Keyboard Configuration Automated

Starting with this release, the sysidkbd tool configures your USB language and its corresponding keyboard layout on x86 systems.

With the new sysidkbd tool, the following procedure occurs:

• If the keyboard is self-identifying, the keyboard language and layout automatically configures during installation.

• If the keyboard is not self-identifying, the sysidkbd tool provides you with a list of supported keyboard layouts during installation, so that you can select a layout for keyboard configuration.

Previously, the USB keyboard assumed a self-identifying value of one during the installation. Therefore, all of the keyboards that were not self-identifying always configured for a U.S. English keyboard layout during installation on SPARC.

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Note –

PS/2 keyboards are not self-identifying. You will have to select the keyboard layout during the installation.

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JumpStart Specifications: If the keyboard is not self-identifying and you want to prevent being prompted during your JumpStart installation, select the keyboard language in your sysidcfg file. For JumpStart installation, the default is for a U.S. English keyboard layout. To select another language and its corresponding keyboard layout, set the keyboard keyword in your sysidcfg file .

For more information, see the Solaris Express Installation Guide: Network-Based Installations.

This feature was introduced for SPARC systems in the Solaris Express 10/06 release. See SPARC: New sysidkbd Tool Configures Your Keyboard.

Upgrading the Solaris OS When Non-Global Zones Are Installed

This installation enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release, you can upgrade the Solaris OS when non-global zones are installed.

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Note –

The only limitation to upgrading involves a Solaris Flash archive. When you use a Solaris Flash archive to install, an archive that contains non-global zones is not properly installed on your system.

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The following changes accommodate systems that have non-global zones installed:

• For the Solaris interactive installation program, you can upgrade or patch a system when non-global zones are installed. The time to upgrade or patch might be extensive, depending on the number of non-global zones that are installed.

• For an automated JumpStart installation, you can upgrade or patch with any keyword that applies to an upgrade or patching. The time to upgrade or patch might be extensive, depending on the number of non-global zones that are installed.

• For Solaris Live Upgrade, you can upgrade or patch a system that contains non-global zones. If you have a system that contains non-global zones, Solaris Live Upgrade is the recommended upgrade program or program to add patches. Other upgrade programs might require extensive upgrade time, because the time required to complete the upgrade increases linearly with the number of installed non-global zones. If you are patching a system with Solaris Live Upgrade, you do not have to take the system to single-user mode and you can maximize your system's uptime.

  Solaris Live Upgrade creates a copy of the OS on the inactive boot environment. The inactive boot environment can be upgraded or patched when non-global zones are installed. The inactive boot environment can then be booted to become the new boot environment. The following changes accommodate systems that have non-global zones installed:

  • A new package, SUNWlucfg, must be installed with the other Solaris Live Upgrade packages, SUNWlur and SUNWluu. This package is required for any system, not just a system with non-global zones installed.

    These three packages contain the software needed to upgrade by using Solaris Live Upgrade. These packages include existing software, new features, and bug fixes. If you do not install these packages on your system before using Solaris Live Upgrade, upgrading to the target release fails.

  • Creating a new boot environment from the currently running boot environment remains the same with one exception. This exception occurs under the following circumstances:

    • If in the current boot environment the zonecfg add fs command was used to create a separate file system for a non-global zone

    • If this separate file system resides on a shared file system. For example, /zone/root/export

    To prevent this separate file system from being shared in the new boot environment, the lucreate command now enable you to specify a destination slice for a separate file system for a non-global zone. The argument to the -m option has a new optional field, zonename. This new field places the non-global zone's separate file system on a separate slice in the new boot environment.

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    Note –

    By default, any file system other than the critical file systems, that is, root (/), /usr, and /opt file systems, is shared between the current and new boot environments. The /export file system is a shared file system. If you use the -m option, the non-global zone's file system is placed on a separate slice and data is not shared. The -m option prevents zone file systems that were created with the zonecfg add fs command from being shared between the boot environments. See zonecfg(1M) for details.

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    In this example, a new boot environment named newbe is created. The root (/) file system is copied to c0t1d0s4. All non-global zones in the current boot environment are copied to the new boot environment. The non-global zone named zone1 contains a file system that resides on a separate slice in a shared file system such as /zone1/root/export. To prevent this file system from being shared, the file system is copied to a separate slice on newbe, c0t1d0s1.

    # lucreate -n newbe -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s4:ufs \ -m /export:/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s1:ufs:zone1

  • The lumount command provides non-global zones with access to their corresponding file systems that exist on inactive boot environments. When the global zone administrator uses the lumount command to mount an inactive boot environment, the boot environment is also mounted for non-global zones.

  • Comparing boot environments is enhanced. The lucompare command now generates a comparison of boot environments that includes the contents of any non-global zone.

  • Listing file systems with the lufslist command is enhanced to display a list of file systems for both the global zone and the non-global zones.

For step-by-step procedures for upgrading a system with non-global zones installed or for information about the Solaris Zones partitioning technology, see the following references:

Description	For More Information
Upgrading with Solaris Live Upgrade on a system with non-global zones	Chapter 9, Upgrading the Solaris OS on a System With Non-Global Zones Installed, in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning
Creating and using non-global zones	System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System
Upgrading with JumpStart	Solaris Express Installation Guide: Custom JumpStart and Advanced Installations
Upgrading with the Solaris installation interactive GUI	Solaris Express Installation Guide: Basic Installations

Solaris Key Management Framework

This security enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

The pktool command enables the administrator to manage PKI objects in all three keystores from a single utility.

The API layer enables the developer to specify the type of keystore to be used. KMF also provides plug-in modules for these PKI technologies. These plug-in modules enable developers to write new applications to use any of the supported keystores.

KMF has a unique feature that provides a system-wide policy database that KMF applications can use regardless of the type of keystore. By using the kmfcfg command, the administrator can create policy definitions in a global database. KMF applications can then choose a policy to enforce, so that all subsequent KMF operations are constrained by the policy being enforced. Policy definitions include rules for the following:

• Strategy for performing validations

• Key usage and extended key usage requirements

• Trust anchor definitions

• OCSP parameters

• CRL DB parameters (for example, location)

For more information, see the following:

• pktool(1) man page

• kmfcfg(1) man page

• Chapter 15, Solaris Key Management Framework, in System Administration Guide: Security Services

rsync

This system administration enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

rsync is an open source utility that provides fast and incremental file transfer. This utility is used by system administrators to move, copy, synchronize data both local, and over the network. The rsync utility uses SSH as a secure transport between machines. rsync can also be used as a safe remote data backup tool for both full and incremental directory comparisons and transfers.

For more information, see http://rsync.samba.org/.

sharemgr(1M) and sharectl(1M) Utilities

This system administration tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release, you can use two new utilities to manage file systems and file-sharing protocols:

• The sharemgr utility simplifies tasks related to sharing file systems. For example, when using sharemgr to share file systems, to set the property values for shared file systems, or perform related tasks, you do not need to use the share, shareall, or unshare utility. Additionally, you do not need to edit the /etc/dfs/dfstab file.

• The sharectl utility enables you to configure and manage file-sharing protocols, for example, NFS. This utility enables you to set the client and server operational properties, display property values for a specific protocol, and obtain the status of a protocol.

For more information, see the following:

• sharemgr(1M) man page

• sharectl(1M) man page

• System Administration Guide: Network Services

Name Service Switch Enhancements

This system administration tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Enhancements have been made to the name service switch (nss) and to the Name Switch Cache Daemon (nscd(1M)) in order to deliver new functionality. These enhancements include the following:

• Better caching in nscd(1M) and management of connections within the updated framework

• Name service lookups that are access controlled at the naming service on a per-user basis. The updated switch framework adds support for this style of lookups using SASL/GSS/Kerberos in a manner that is compatible with the authentication model used in the Microsoft Active Directory.

• A framework for the future addition of putXbyY interfaces.

SMF Enhancements to Routing Management

This system administration tools enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release, routeadm (1M) is enhanced to manage SMF-based routing daemon services. Also, service conversions for the following commands are provided:

• in.routed(1M)

• in.ripngd(1M)

• in.rdisc(1M)

• in.ndpd(1M)

As a result, these services can be managed through standard SMF commands such as svcadm and svccfg, and utilize the restart capabilities that SMF provides.

X Server DTrace Provider

Starting with the Developer 2/07 release, the X Window System servers include a User-land Statically Defined Tracing (USDT) DTrace provider for instrumenting X11 client connections. The X Window System servers include the following:

• Xorg

• Xsun

• Xprt

• Xnest

• Xvfb

For more information about available probes and their arguments, and sample dtrace scripts using them, see http://people.freedesktop.org/.

Direct Rendering Infrastructure

Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) is an open sourced software framework for coordinating the following:

• OS kernel

• X Window System

• 3D graphics hardware

• OpenGL-based client applications

DRI enables direct access to graphics hardware in the X Window System in a safe and efficient manner. DRI also enables OpenGL hardware-accelerated, 3D rendering on UNIX-like operating systems. DRI framework and the accelerated driver for Intel have been ported to Solaris. Currently, DRI has the graphics chipsets produced by Intel, ATI, Via, and 3dfx.

SATA HBA Framework and Marvell Driver

This device management enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release the READ/WRITE FPDMA QUEUED commands are supported. There is considerable performance enhancement when performing I/O operations using the Marvell driver with Sun branded Hitachi model HDS7225SBSUN250G.

x86: NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Drivers

This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

Starting with this release, the accelerated graphics drivers for Xorg and OpenGL for NVIDIA Quadro and GeForce cards are included. The nvidia-settings and nvidia-xconfig configuration tools for these drivers are also provided.

Adaptec aac Hardware Support

This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

The updated aac driver supports the new generation, rocket chip-based Adaptec Hardware RAID adapter. The aac driver also supports the Adaptec Storage Management Utility (ASM), which configures and monitors the controller and attached hard drives. For more information, see the Adaptec web-site http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/adps/.

x86: Direct Rendering Infrastructure Porting

This driver enhancement is new in the Developer 2/07 release.

In this release, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) kernel-level framework and a kernel (Direct Rendering Manager) driver for Intel integrated chipsets have been ported from BSD to Solaris.

For more information about DRI, see Direct Rendering Infrastructure.